Three-Man Weave: Bradley Beal Exterminates Portland Trail Blazers

Bradley Beal – 51 points, three rebounds, two assists

The Washington Wizards are 3-3 in the six games they’ve been without John Wall, who’s sidelined after getting PRP injections in his knee. Over that stretch, Bradley Beal’s averaging 21.2 points and hasn’t been too impressive. And then Tuesday happened. Beal — whose previous career-best was 42 — needs to star in an episode of MasterChef because that man was cooking. He joined Wall as the only other Wizard to crack 50 points this decade, and it was a magical performance that highlighted Beal’s natural scoring ability. He didn’t have to rely on the three-ball and was comfortable weaving through traffic before pulling up from mid-range or exploding to the hoop. Hopefully, this gets Beal out of his recent slump.

Russell Westbrook – 34 points, 14 assists, 13 rebounds

Oh my, Russell Westbrook finally got a triple-double that mattered! It was his seventh of the season, and no other player has more than two. Russ played well, and the Oklahoma City Thunder secured their third-straight win, but his two previous triple-doubles had come in losses, and a lot of fans were giving that more attention than the team who won. It’s messed up, that’s all. Regardless, that doesn’t take away from how he stuffed the stat sheet on Tuesday. The only blemishes in the box score where Westbrook’s seven missed threes and his seven turnovers, but his usage rate nearly cracked 41 percent.

Damian Lillard – 30 points, nine assists, eight rebounds

We’re seeing a different Damian Lillard this year. He’s boasting a true shooting clip (56.9 percent) that’s only slightly above his career mark, and he wasn’t that accurate against Washington. Dame, however, is doing more in other areas. He’s now got four games with at least nine assists and 16 games corralling five or more rebounds. The effort on Tuesday would’ve likely been enough had Bradley Beal not exploded, but Lillard did his best to keep Portland alive. Unfortunately, a lack of bench production and an abysmal second quarter opened their coffin.